16 Budget-Friendly Aldi Side Dishes Under $5, Ranked

If you ask me, the sides are the best part of any meal because of their palatability (who doesn't love french fries in every shape imaginable?) and their versatility. However, the time it takes to prepare them, and the extra cost on your grocery bill, can make them a side you reserve for special occasions. Budget grocer Aldi has solved both issues by offering an array of ready-made (or near-ready-made) sides that ring in under $5 each.

These offerings range from microwaveable risotto and instant couscous to kid-favorite finds like cheesy breadsticks, potato puffs, and even bagged salad kits. To decide which sides are worth buying, I tried sub-$5 options across all of Aldi's departments — deli, pantry, frozen, bakery, and produce —and ranked them from worst to best based on versatility, texture, and flavor. Since comparing a pouch of Spanish rice to Caesar salad is inherently unfair, I instead focused on how each Aldi product compared to other versions of the food I've had in the past. I also considered whether I would buy it again if I were in a time (and money) crunch. This list is far from exhaustive, but I tried to include a decent diversity of products in hopes of satisfying every type of shopper.

Prices are as of the date of publication and may vary based on region.

I had a bad feeling about this Priano Mushroom Risotto, since the recipe said to microwave it for 15 minutes — which sounded far too long. But risotto takes forever to prepare, so I did what I was told: I poured the contents into a ramekin with the appropriate amount of water, and microwaved it for half the time. Seven minutes later, I was running around my kitchen like the panicked Beaker the Muppet meme as smoke poured from my microwave. The risotto was burnt to a crisp (those curious can see my methodology photo comparing the first and second batch; the smoky haze really sets the mood). 

I reluctantly bought another batch, tried it again, and found that the optimal cook time for this product is about four minutes, at least in my microwave. It requires constant babysitting and stirring — not unlike classic risotto. At this point, I should just make a stovetop risotto from scratch. The flavor, while not entirely awful, is very salty, and I couldn't find any sort of mushroom flavor in it. Although a packet is $1.79, its cooking directions are so dangerous that I couldn't even recommend it to my worst enemy. 

Potato salad, or as I call it, one of the worst side dishes to bring to a barbecue, this Aldi rendition was arguably set up to fail. Priced at $3.99, it also includes eggs — which is a cardinal sin in my eyes. Is it potato salad? Or is it egg salad? Make up your mind!

Rest assured, if you brought this to any barbecue, you wouldn't be invited back. When I cracked the plastic lid, I couldn't help but notice that the so-called salad looked more like mashed potatoes. There was no visible texture. After digging around, I found a few potato chunks, but they lacked the toothsomeness I consider good potato salad. 

After one bite, I decided I had had enough. There was enough mustard, and not so much mayo that the whole thing tasted eggy, but since I tasted little besides bland, potato-like mush, I didn't see the need to keep eating it. Its flavor didn't improve after it sat at room temperature for a bit, either. It has no redeeming qualities.

Jambalaya is one of the Cajun foods you have to try once, and by that, I mean you have to go down to New Orleans and find someone who knows what they're doing. Don't trust Aldi to do this complex side dish well. Aldi's Earthly Grains New Orleans Style Red Beans and Rice ($1.65) just feels wrong. It was heartier than many of the other sides on this list because it contains both beans and rice, but the lack of a meaty element makes it feel incomplete, unlike our one-pot beans and rice recipe. 

This box came with a packet of seasoning, but it didn't include clear directions on when to add it. It also suggested cooking for a total of 18 minutes (danger, danger!) and standing for at least five minutes. I halved the cook time and checked the beans and rice regularly to avoid another incident. Though both were fully cooked, the water never fully absorbed, leaving me with a bowl of mushy rice and soggy beans that tasted like they'd been infused with a too-salty taco seasoning. It looks nothing like the packaging, but I was glad it had more depth than the potato salad.

The cook time for Aldi's Earthly Grains Spanish Rice is supposed to be 12 minutes. But as you can probably guess by now, I don't trust that. I did two bursts of three minutes, letting it sit out for several minutes afterward so that the water could absorb. And what do you know? Perfectly cooked — unlike the lower-ranked rice and beans.

It's cheap, ringing in at $0.99 a packet, but it felt too far from "Spanish" rice to warrant a higher spot on this list. It had no warming spices, and it lacked the rich tomato flavor I've come to expect from Spanish rice — or whatever the heck the local taqueria plops on my plate on Taco Tuesday. There's also supposed to be vermicelli in it, but I couldn't pick it out. It just tasted like rice that was slightly more exciting than my go-to white jasmine.

I was a bit weirded out that this Chef's Cupboard Chicken Stuffing Mix only had instructions for microwaving or stovetop preparation; I always thought stuffing was meant to be baked. Still, it made this side more convenient, since I just had to add water and butter. These "luxe" additions were still within budget, since a whole box of this stuffing cost only $0.78. 

I used Irish butter for this stuffing, and when I sat down to eat it, I couldn't help but think that I should have pinched my pennies and used the cheap stuff instead because not even good butter could fix it. It's supposed to be chicken stuffing, but it doesn't taste like chicken — or anything, for that matter. There were no alliums, seasoning, or anything. It was just wet bread.

If I made it again, I would use chicken broth instead of water. While cheaper than the potato salad and lower-ranked rice products, it still isn't worth buying.

Couscous isn't my pick of the litter. The wheat morsels in this $1.79 box of Earthly Grains Parmesan Couscous Mix didn't pack the umami flavor I expected, which only added insult to injury. While it was fluffy and cooked up well, the only flavor I could decipher was butter — because that's what I added to it. If it were cooked in stock, it would probably be more flavorful, but that doesn't fit the "simple" side-dish look I was going for.

Though plain, it is more versatile than some of my lower-ranked picks, and the quality is not significantly lower than other batches of couscous I've eaten over the years. However, it doesn't wow me enough that I would go out of my way to buy it, which is why it ranked toward the middle of my list. 

I can think of 1,000 things more appetizing than a plate of pre-cooked, microwaved black beans. They're not just any beans, though; they're Cuban Black Beans. They pack more flavor than what I'd get from a can, but that doesn't make their $1.99 price tag worth it. 

After eating a lot of fried food and carbs for this test, these fiber-rich beans were a welcome change. They softened in just a minute in the microwave, and I could pick out some cumin and vinegar notes. However, when you consider that you can buy a can of black beans (which are pre-cooked anyway) for much less and add your own spices, this microwaveable satchel becomes far less appealing. 

Interestingly, this was the only Asian-inspired side dish I tried for this ranking. It said it contained lettuce, but after a quick search through the bag, I think it had one single lettuce leaf — the rest was cabbage. I don't love raw cabbage, but thankfully the dressing in the Little Salad Bar Asian Chopped Salad Kit came to my rescue. It had mirin-like undertones, with a delightful hint of sesame from both the cracker topping and the dressing and nuttiness from the sliced almonds.

If you don't like cabbage, you won't like this $2.95 salad kit. But since you can repurpose the bagged mix for some other recipe, you may want to add it to your Aldi cart. Ultimately, the more approachable sides ranked higher than this one, but I still appreciate not having to cut a whole cabbage to get it on the table. 

I love a Caesar salad as much as the next person, but it can be cumbersome to gather all the components — including lettuce, croutons, Parmesan, and the iconic Caesar dressing. You're paying for convenience with this Little Salad Bar Caesar Salad Kit, priced at $2.95, but you can rest assured that you are still getting a decent product. 

I know how hard it is for a grocery store to do Caesar dressing right, as I tried and ranked wide store-bought varieties myself. Aldi's dressing here is decent. Not great, but decent. I was, however, confused by the breadcrumbs. Were they croutons that had been smashed in transit? It didn't seem like it — someone assumed mealy, stale crumbs were a good addition to this salad.

The Mama Cozzi's Pizza Kitchen Cheesy Breadsticks are a splurge by Aldi standards. They cost a whopping $4.69 — which feels like highway robbery compared to the sub-$2 finds on this list. This price is likely tied to their location in the store: next to Mama Cozzi's other pizzas. It's a smart marketing grab; customers buy a take-and-bake pie and think, "Why not?" But hey, under $5 is under $5, and if these breadsticks were life-changing, I'd be fine paying that much.

I change my mind. I am not fine paying that much. This side is literally cheese and bread — which should be hard to screw up. I was initially tantalized by the delicious, herb-forward smell coming from my oven, but I was disappointed when I pulled the tray out. The perforated square was sopping in oil and tasted like the Bosco sticks of my youth, with far less cheese. While the crust was pleasantly fluffy, there wasn't enough cheese on top to justify eating it (let alone give me a satisfying cheese pull). I would need a dipping sauce to eat more than two bites — kids at a sleepover would probably love them, though.

Let's face it: No one is going to complain about garlic knots, regardless of their quality. These knots, made to be heated in the packaging, are soft, pliable, and it's easy to eat five of them in a single sitting. Though their flavor should be "savory garlic," I got a "stingy with the garlic powder" vibe instead. They lack the depth of flavor you'd get from a garlic-topped knot from your local pizzeria, but it's a bakery item from Aldi, priced at $2.99 for a sizable bag—you kinda have to take what you can get. 

I wish the knots had more texture; they were all soft and squishy, with very little crispiness. It's fine if you want something kid-friendly to serve with pasta sauce and lasagna, but if you're after quality, look elsewhere.

Both Mac and Cheese items I tried actually fared really well for cheap, store-bought mac. However, the Chef's Cupboard Shells and Cheese, priced at $1.39, had some cook-time issues. The packaging made it really clear not to overcook it (I wish it had added that disclosure to other products, but I digress), so I cooked the noodles for seven minutes — less than the recommended eight to 10. They were still softer and less al dente than I would have wanted.

The processed cheese envelope looked, frankly, nasty, but it tastes great in a way that only shelf-stable cheese sauce can. It's more salty and buttery than cheesy, which I found odd. Regardless, the synthetic flavor is charming, and if I were in the mood for a comfort-food side, it makes a compelling case for itself. 

This bag of 90-Second Organic Quinoa and Brown Rice tasted as I expected: super plain and super versatile. You can use it as a base for grain bowls and salads, and folks in a rush will love that it can be microwaved in under two minutes.

As with all instant rice products, this one compacts and comes out more blob-like than fluffy — but it's nothing a fork toss can't solve. It's also not buttery or nutty, but such is the case for microwaved grains. But it is perfectly cooked, which is a rarity for "instant" grains. If I needed to buy a rice side from Aldi, this $1.99 Simply Nature option would be the one. 

Instant mashed potatoes have earned my respect. After all, why spend time boiling, ricing, or mashing potatoes when you can toss this instant side into the microwave with water and get a buttery batch in minutes? 

These Chef's Cupboard Buttery Mashed Potatoes are quite good, and I loved the $0.99 price tag even more than the potatoes themselves. They genuinely taste buttery, giving them a leg up on the comparatively flavorless quinoa and brown rice, and are more versatile. They would be excellent on your Thanksgiving table, though I think they need a bit more water than the recipe calls for, which knocked them down from the top of this list.

Maybe I'm biased here, but I do think that Aldi Season's Choice makes the best tater tots/potato puffs in the game. I like tots that aren't overly greasy, have a shredded, potato-like interior rather than turning gummy, and have some flavor. And this one hits the mark every time I buy it. It's a mainstay in my home if I'm feeding small children (or picky adults), and this taste test proved that it will remain a freezer staple for years to come.

The versatility of all tater tots — let alone a tater tot this good — is unmatched. It's game for breakfasts, dinners, totchos, and late-night fare alike. While this product costs more than most of the others (clocking in at $2.99 per 32-ounce bag), the serving size is much larger than many single-serving products on this list. Their only strike was that the tots needed just a pinch more salt.

I tried to avoid repetition on this list, but I ended up buying both the refrigerated Park Street Deli Mac and Cheese (which seems to pass itself off as a Bob Evans-inspired side) and the lower-ranked, shelf-stable Chef's Cupboard version. The fact that I only needed to microwave the Park Street Deli version in two intervals — rather than boil water for it — is what won me over. It's about as foolproof as a side can get.

I lovingly liken this side to "upgraded hospital food." It has the decadent, creamy, rich texture you'd expect from hospital or school cafeteria food, but it has an innately comforting, nostalgic feel that others on this list couldn't replicate. The noodles held up better than in the other pasta I tried, and while it's not winning any awards for complexity or outrageousness, at $2.99, it is a reliable, reasonably priced choice I found myself going back to time and time again. 

I prepared all these side dishes on the same day (except for the catastrophic Mushroom Risotto, which I remade) as directed. This included following all instructions for preparation, ingredient add-ins, and cook times. Prices are all based on my nearest Aldi location in Rhode Island. 

I based my ranking on the factors I look for in a good store-bought side. Convenience is one; I don't want to have to babysit something in the microwave or on the stove. Versatility and mass appeal are another, as I wanted a side dish that could be served to picky and adventurous eaters alike and paired with many meals. Taste and texture are also a given, though since these dishes varied so much, I compared the taste and texture of the Aldi products to others I've tried before. In the end, the dish that won out was satisfying, comforting, easy to prepare, and, best of all, didn't come close to burning my condo down.